Nowakowski’s “The 26” remembers the 26 Catholics who were martyred in Japan in the turbulent years leading up to the Edo period.

“When I first began to compose ‘The 26’ for James Nyoraku Schlefer, I found myself drawn to the famous story of the 26 Franciscan Martyrs of Japan,” says Nowakowski. “This led me to Sushako Endo’s searing and complex novel Silence, whose mood would ultimately permeate the heart of the music I would write. As the months passed and ‘The 26’ took shape, the world witnessed the rise of groups like ISIS and Boko Haram, along with their single-minded desire to eradicate Christianity from their respective parts of the world (while Western leaders remained curiously silent.) Suddenly the now distant sacrifice of these martyrs for Japan – and the very real human fears and struggles which must have accompanied their fate – became tragically prescient as the terrible stories and images continued to pour out of Africa and the Middle East. There was no way that I could write music about these terrible events, but the events could not help but find their way into this music.”